Life can be weird, can’t it? Who would have guessed that within months of each other, two such big and seemingly unconnected things will take place in artist Graham Metson’s life? That his richly-illustrated book “Blitz Kid” – about a child experiencing war-time London with its bombs and fires – will launch decades after he started it, but his cherished home and studio in Prince Edward County, Ontario will burn to the ground?
Luckily for Graham and his wife Cheryl, they were away from home at the time. Their two cats escaped, and some of his paintings were saved. But a lifetime of valuable possessions was gone.
Graham Metson is one of Canada’s celebrated artists. He’s revered for paintings that make you think. Beautiful, yes. But to onlookers, some of his works seem to express a haunted, even violent beauty. What appears to be a picture of a vase of flowers may turn out to be what a bomb looked like as it exploded.
His is not the kind of work you forget a minute later. Some of his works hang in Canada’s national gallery.
Graham is less well-known as a writer. Yet, as you read his words, you can’t help but be struck at his skill for capturing detail. The tiniest incident comes to life as he recalls his childhood memories of living in London, England, during the second world war. Interactions with his mom or Nana. Scenes from the schoolyard. Seeing the fragments and ruins of bombed buildings. Missing his dad, who has gone to war. There are also childhood friends; his stamp collection; words the local minister says to him after he’s failed a school exam.
The book was a long time in the making. Graham started writing his memories of that time in the 1980’s, before he even considered creating pictures to help tell the story.
“I felt the need to create a series of photomontage / mixed media images in which I could delve more deeply than words into my memories,” he says. “Perhaps revealing something about the nature of memory.”
I loaned my copy of Blitz Kid to an artist friend who was also a child in London during that war. She was absorbed by both pictures and words. She told me: “It’s authentic. He captured life during that time very well – and especially from a child’s perspective.”
Months later, as wars rage on in several countries – and children and parents are slaughtered – I decided to reread Blitz Kid. Through the words and pictures, the book reminded me of the daily, sometimes minute, ways in which children go about their lives during wartime. And the fears and horrors of war that are a constant backdrop to those daily lives.
It also reinforced for me the power of memory – what we can recall, decades later. And finally, what a precious gift it is to be able to think like a child. This book is written so simply, yet so powerfully, the reader at times forgets she’s reading a book. It feels as if you’re listening to the child himself.
In happy news for Graham and Cheryl, they were able to rebuild their house on the spot where the former one stood. And Graham, now 88 years old, continues to paint.
The book may be ordered by contacting: grahammetson@yahoo.com
I hope you’re all doing well, my friends.
Cynthia.
